The Cows Can't Have It If We Eat It First!

This evening Justice and I turned on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer while enjoying our homemade rustic crust pizza margarita. A very interesting segment devoted to the rising cost of food began and I had never been happier to be sitting in a meat free zone. It seems that the rise in food cost is related to the rising demand for meat in developing countries such as China. The grains that were going to feed people are now feeding cattle. This results in a more than 75% energy deficit. If we can all just limit our intake of animal products at home, there will be more food to go around or as we Vegans At Home say, "More of everything for everybody".

Stop biting off more food than you can swallow! Eat this instead:

Rustic Crust Pizza Margarita:
For the sauce:
1 15 ounce can organic diced tomatoes
1 15 ounce can organic tomato sauce
1 yellow onion chopped
1 garlic clove crushed
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp olive oil

Combine onion and olive oil in a large sauce pan. Cook until soft. Add garlic and stir 1 minute. Add all remaining ingredients and simmer 1 hour.

For the crust:
2-3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp dry active yeast, one package will do nicely too.
1 cup luke warm water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp. salt

Stir yeast into water and let sit 5 minutes. Meanwhile combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Only use 2 cups of the whole wheat flour at this point. If you are blessed with a stand mixer, nows the time to use it. Add the yeast mixture and the oil to the dry mixture and begin to stir. The dough should be sticky but you want it to form a ball. Add more flour during the mixing to achieve the desired dough consistency. Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it until it is shiny, smooth, and elastic. Place the dough in a heavily olive-oiled large bowl and cover with a towel. Let it rise for 1 hour. Punch down the dough and place it on an oiled cookie sheet. Spread the dough out flat so that it almost reaches all the sides. Spoon your tomato mixture on top spreading the tomatoes almost to all the edges of the dough. Bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees.